


Advanced Reunification Composition

by theglassedhalf



Category: Community (TV)
Genre: Angst, Love Confessions, M/M, Post Episode: s05305 Geothermal Escapism, Post Episode: s06e13 Emotional Consequences of Broadcast Television, Reunions
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-08
Updated: 2020-05-27
Packaged: 2021-03-03 00:08:19
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 5,510
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24075724
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/theglassedhalf/pseuds/theglassedhalf
Summary: It had been five years since Troy’s trip ended. Of course Abed understood that it was impossible to text, call or send a letter while in the middle of the ocean. He could forgive Troy for never reaching out during the first year. There was no excuse for the other five years. About one thousand eight hundred twenty-five times, Abed had texted or called Troy. He sent one text or left one voicemail every day, a foolish habit he couldn’t break, no matter how hard he tried. No text ever received an answer, and Abed’s phone never rang. Troy seemed determined to ignore his best friend until the end of time.
Relationships: Troy Barnes/Abed Nadir
Comments: 24
Kudos: 122





	1. Chapter 1

Abed Nadir was not an emotional person. He never had been; he rarely offered so much as a smile or a chuckle. All of that changed when he met Troy Barnes; someway, somehow, the other man had drawn the emotion out of him. Somehow, after Troy left, that part of Abed only became more prominent. More specifically, his negative emotions became more obvious and far harder for him to suppress. 

He didn’t really have any friends, but the few people he did see on a regular basis noticed and often asked. He would always lie, waving a dismissive hand and refusing to make eye contact as he claimed to be perfectly fine. When Troy was still around, Abed had learned how to socialize more like the people around him--he made more eye contact and kept his awkward hand gestures to a movement. When Troy left, he climbed back into his shell, hiding behind moving hands, eyes always trained on anything other than the person he was talking to. 

Troy Barnes had ruined Abed Nadir. 

It had been six years since the fateful day that Troy had left to sail the world with LeVar Burton on the _Childish Tycoon _, a final request from their dead “friend” Pierce Hawthorne. At the time, Abed had taken the news of Troy leaving with difficulty. He had staged an entire game of hot lava in an attempt to keep Troy with him forever, but in the end he learned to let go. He had always hoped Troy would come back someday.__

__It had been five years since Troy’s trip ended. Of course Abed understood that it was impossible to text, call or send a letter while in the middle of the ocean. He could forgive Troy for never reaching out during the first year. There was no excuse for the other five years. About one thousand eight hundred twenty-five times, Abed had texted or called Troy. He sent one text or left one voicemail every day, a foolish habit he couldn’t break, no matter how hard he tried. No text ever received an answer, and Abed’s phone never rang. Troy seemed determined to ignore his best friend until the end of time._ _

__Abed was not someone who cried. Growing up with an angry father who scolded and degraded him constantly never bothered him. He would usually stand and take the words without reaction, head tilted down as his dad yelled at him. When it was over, he would go about things like nothing had happened. The day Troy left was the first time Abed could really remember crying. The crying never seemed to stop; sometimes at night, he would find tears rolling down his cheeks after waking up from a dream about Troy. When the tears came, he just wiped them away with the sleeve of whatever flannel he happened to be wearing that day and continued on with his life. He shouldn’t waste tears on someone who had so clearly stopped caring about him. That was what he tried to tell himself, at least._ _

__It wasn’t abnormal for people to stop needing Abed. He had very little value for most people; in fact, Jeff Winger, on that fateful first day at Greendale, had been the first person to ever see any worth in Abed at all. Troy had seemed different from everyone else, though, and that was what made it all hurt so badly. Abed had never had a best friend before Troy came into his life. He was always the weird one that never fit in, and Troy made him feel completely accepted. Troy didn’t just accept the little quirks and eccentricities of Abed Nadir, he _embraced _them. He loved every little thing that made people feel like Abed was so weird; Troy played along with the games and jumped through the (literal and figurative) hoops that came with having any sort of relationship with Abed. Losing Troy was like losing a limb for Abed, and he was still learning how to function without it.___ _

____-_ _ _ _

____Abed was sitting at a table in a cafe, laptop open on the table as his thin fingers nimbly typed away on the keyboard, creating the dialogue for his newest script. Abed liked being alone, but the buzz of people around him in a busy room always seemed to help the words flow into his script faster. Sometimes he listened in on the conversations of strangers, and used that to help make the dialogue in his movies feel more natural._ _ _ _

____Abed picked up his cup, sipping his hot chocolate. Since he didn’t drink coffee and he found tea disgusting, hot chocolate was what Abed ordered. It gave him faint reminders of special drink, which led to his thoughts drifting back to Troy and the nights they stayed up until half past three in the morning, drinking the beverage while they laughed at awful movies. It sent a pang of sadness through Abed’s heart every time without fail._ _ _ _

____As Abed focused on his typing, eyes darting over the text on the screen, reading and rereading the words over and over in search of any typos to fix or phrases to improve. Abed was so lost in his work, wanting to make the script perfect, that he failed to notice when someone sat across the table from him. It wasn’t uncommon when the cafe got busy for people to share the tables and couches with strangers; even if Abed had noticed the person now sitting with him, it was doubtful that he would have even acknowledged them._ _ _ _

____“Abed. Hey. It’s been a while.”_ _ _ _

____Abed froze, finger hovering over the backspace button. His mouth fell open slightly and his eyes began darting around even more quickly than before. He furrowed his eyebrows, his head involuntarily shaking, like he was trying to convince himself that this wasn’t real. There was no way it could be._ _ _ _

____“What are you doing here?” Abed finally managed to force himself to stay, still refusing to look up. Abed didn’t want to see him. He didn’t want to burst into tears in public; it would be the most humiliating moment in his life if he did._ _ _ _

____“Well, I came out to LA for my music career,” Troy replied after a moment. It was obvious that Abed didn’t care why Troy was in the city. He just wanted to know why Troy was in this cafe, sitting across from him and attempting to start a conversation. It was easier for Troy to make small talk, since it was easier and cleaner than having the heavy conversation about what had happened over the last half decade. “I spoke to Jeff a few days ago. He told me you came out here, too. I wasn’t surprised, I always knew eventually you’d make your way out to California to jumpstart your film career.” Troy chuckled softly at the distant memory of the movies he and Abed made together back at Greendale. Silently, he was hoping for a chance to convince Abed to show him some of the movies he had made since then. He was sure Abed had done something impressive since then; he was a more talented filmmaker than a lot of people ever gave him credit for._ _ _ _

____“You spoke to Jeff.” It wasn’t a question, just a monotone statement. Abed was tossing the words around in his hands, feeling their weight and texture._ _ _ _

____“Yeah, he called me-” Troy began, but Abed was quick to cut him off._ _ _ _

____“Five, five, five. Zero, one, eight, six.” Abed said the numbers quickly, tilting his head to the side slightly._ _ _ _

____“My phone number?” Troy questioned, raising an eyebrow._ _ _ _

____“So I was calling and texting the right number. You were choosing to ignore me.” Abed observed, tracing a finger along the keyboard to keep himself distracted from the emotions threatening to bubble up over the surface._ _ _ _

____Troy had no excuse. He had read every text, had watched the phone ring almost every night, and had played every voicemail. He had purposely chosen to ignore it all and he had no idea how to even begin explaining the reasoning for that to Abed._ _ _ _

____“Everyone stops needing me at some point. I’m strange and crazy and difficult,” Abed sighed, dropping his shoulders. “I guess I thought you were different. I thought what we had was special, Troy.” He pursed his lips, unable to deny the sense of betrayal that rushed through him._ _ _ _

____The old Troy would have been a wreck of tears and childish yelling by now. But five years can certainly change a person, and he was no exception. Troy had grown up in that time, and had learned to control himself far better._ _ _ _

____That was why he had left Abed in his past. Troy loved the memories he had of the other man. They always made him smile, even if it was a bittersweet sense of joy that came with them. Those memories held Troy back, though, and kept him locked to a past he was trying to outgrow. Sometimes he wondered if it made a bad friend for assuming that Abed would never grow up and out of the kid-like mindstate that he had always been in, but Troy found it easier to just pretend Abed was gone, rather than trying to force the man to grow up with him._ _ _ _

____“You don’t even have an answer to what I said.” Abed acknowledged, finally looking up and making eye contact with Troy. Troy found it hard not to look down, to avoid that burning gaze. Abed’s usually soft, kind brown eyes were strangely piercing now. It made Troy shudder.  
“I don’t even know where to begin, Abed.” Troy admitted, rubbing his arm nervously. “So much has happened and of course I want to explain myself but trying to find the words to explain the last six years-” Troy cut himself off and looked down, no longer able to stomach Abed’s gaze casting so much shame onto him. _ _ _ _

____ _ _

____“This isn’t the place for this.” Abed finally said. “There are too many people around, and we’re both extremely emotional.” He noted. He couldn’t recall Troy ever being ashamed to let everyone see his emotions in the past, but Abed had come to accept that this was not the Troy he remembered. His Troy was gone, left behind somewhere at Greendale or on a boat in the middle of the sea._ _ _ _

____“Can we meet up somewhere more private later?” Troy asked sheepishly. “I’ve missed you and I’d love to reconnect…”_ _ _ _

____“If you missed me, you would have returned those calls.” Abed pointed out, cocking his head to the side. “But you never did.” He pointed to Troy, the accusation falling from his lips before he could stop himself. “I did everything I could to make sure we stayed in each other’s lives. You let things end, Troy.”_ _ _ _

____Troy felt like a knife was being driven through his heart. He couldn’t argue or deny it, because what Abed said was true. This was Troy’s fault. He’d come here with the hopes of fixing things but he had always known five minutes of talking couldn’t fix five years of a broken friendship. He watched Abed pack his things up, grab his hot chocolate and leave, merely mumbling a quiet goodbye as he rushed out of sight. And for the first time in years, Troy Barnes allowed himself to cry over his loss of Abed Nadir._ _ _ _


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The song "Last Time" by Secondhand Serenade (obsessed with their music) was basically on loop the entire time this chapter was written. I may have made myself cry writing this. Enjoy.

Abed was sitting on his couch, eating a bowl of Lucky Charms as he watched an old rerun of Cougar Town. The show hadn’t really amused him for a long time, but he still found himself coming back to it at times in an attempt to revive the old memories that came along with the show. He flinched as his phone went off, spilling a few drops of milk onto his pant leg. He sighed, swearing softly under his breath as he set the bowl down and reached for his phone. Nobody really texted him, so it was rare for Abed to hear his phone go off. 

Sighing to himself, Abed unlocked his phone, expecting to have a text from the studio telling him they wanted his next script sooner, or a spam email advertising a sale at a store he’d never even shopped at. He was shocked when, instead, he saw a text from Troy. It almost looked fake to Abed; it had been so long that he had grown used to seeing only the blue bubbles of his own messages. 

Troy: _Can I come over tonight? We need to talk._

Abed didn’t immediately reply. He set his phone down, picked up his bowl of cereal and went to the kitchen to dump out the rest of its contents. He sighed to himself, sitting down at his kitchen table and drumming his fingers on the surface as he weighed his options. 

Finally, Abed picked his phone back up and texted Troy back. 

Abed: _Fine._ He texted Troy his address, and the two eventually decided that they would have dinner together at eight. 

Abed wasn’t much of a cook. He didn’t eat very exciting meals, and his love of buttered noodles hadn’t diminished over the years. So, as eight approached and Troy sent a text to alert Abed to the fact that he was on his way, Abed began boiling a pot of water. He realized he didn’t have anything fancy to drink--no wine or even any juice at all. He usually confined himself to drinking water or the occasional glass of milk. There wasn’t enough time to run to the store, so he set out two glasses of iced water along with the buttered noodles and prayed Troy wouldn’t make any comments about it. Money was a bit tight for Abed, considering that the only movies he’d made had hardly even gotten into any film festivals, so he usually didn’t enjoy very decadent dinners. More importantly, Abed saw no reason to waste his time making a fancy meal for Troy. 

There was a knock at the door and Abed made his way to the door, opening it wordlessly and stepping aside to allow Troy inside. Abed’s apartment was small and Troy noted how it was eerily similar to the one they had shared when they still went to Greendale. He wanted to ask if that had been intentional but thought it better to keep his mouth shut. 

“I brought you a gift. Consider it...a peace offering.” Troy said, extending a small box to Abed, who took it and placed it on the kitchen counter. He mumbled a quiet “thank you”. 

“I smell buttered noodles,” Troy commented, smiling slightly. His Abed was still the same as he was back when Troy knew him; it brought a sense of ease into the room. It told Troy that things would be just a little bit easier.

“Troy.” Abed sighed, eyes unblinking as he stared at the table and spoke. “It’s not going to help either of us if we sit here and waste our time on small talk. It’s awkward and pointless. Let’s just discuss the thing you came here to discuss in the first place.” He said, finally blinking again as he walked over to the table and sat down, fixing his wide brown eyes on Troy. 

Troy sighed, staying fixed in his place for a moment. He cast a glance at the box on the countertop, knowing full well Abed would probably dump it in the garbage without even opening it to see what was inside. Then he turned and looked at the table where Abed was sitting. Troy hadn’t eaten a bowl of buttered noodles since getting on that boat. He was afraid that eating them would be the catalyst in setting off a storm that would uproot and turn over every single deep, buried emotion he had been running from for so long. 

Abed didn’t seem too keen on eating, either. It appeared he had set out the dinner more as a formality than anything else. He pushed the noodles around in the bowl with his fork, but he never took a single bite. 

“Did you ever even read the texts I sent? Or listen to the voicemails I left?” He finally brought himself to ask, lifting his eyes up to Troy’s. 

“Of course I did.” Troy replied, voice weighed down in shame. His cheeks turned red as he thought about how guilty this all made him feel. Abed must have thought he was some kind of monster. 

“Then why didn’t you respond? You knew how desperate I was to have you back in my life.” Abed was good at disguising his emotions, but Troy heard the way his voice wavered as he spoke. He was clearly in a lot of pain. 

“It’s complicated.” Troy said softly, averting his gaze. 

If Abed wasn’t so determined to bury his emotions, he would have slammed a fist on the table. Instead, he clenched his jaw and grinded his teeth together. His brows knit together in frustration as he desperately searched for the right words to say. 

“Complicated? I want a real answer Troy. I understand that life is inherently _complicated_ but I deserve a real answer. Why did you stop caring about me?” It wasn’t until he stopped speaking that he realized how his chest was heaving with each breath. Abed’s emotions were betraying him again. 

“I never stopped caring about you,” Troy insisted. “I had no choice but to cut you off without saying anything because I didn’t want to hurt you, Abed.” His voice was shaky as he spoke. 

“How did cutting me off without so much as a final goodbye count as not hurting me?” Abed asked, voice monotone, as if he wasn’t absolutely livid under the surface. 

“It would have hurt you so much more if I explained why I-” 

“Why?” Abed cut him off with one word. “Why did you _need _to cut me off?” His brows furrowed back together in confusion, and his fingers began fidgeting nervously.__

__“I became completely different in that year on the boat. I grew up, Abed.” Troy explained, voice softening. He knew he would need to be gentle with this; Abed didn’t take well to change and this was probably the biggest change Troy was ever going to present to him. “Abed, you and I were like children in the bodies of adults. When I spent that year with LeVar, he brought a more mature side of me out.” Troy explained, watching Abed’s face closely for any sort of reaction. “And I don’t want to go back to being so childish. I don’t want to pretend to be a character from Inspector Spacetime anymore or-”_ _

__“You don’t like Inspector Spacetime anymore?” Abed asked, sounding more shocked than hurt._ _

__“I’m too old to invest so much time into a silly television show. We both are.” Troy reasoned, shaking his head._ _

__“Inspector Spacetime isn’t just for kids, Troy. We love that show.” Abed replied, shaking his head. He couldn’t believe what he was hearing._ _

__“Abed.” Troy said in a stern voice, taking a deep breath. “I stopped talking to you because it was easier to ignore you and pretend we were still friends. I didn’t want to tell you that we can’t be friends anymore because I knew having this conversation was going to hurt too much!” Troy squeezed his eyes shut as tears began rolling down his cheeks._ _

__Abed just looked down, tilting his head to the side. “Why can’t we be friends anymore? Why do things need to change, Troy?” It was the first time that night that he had allowed emotion to creep into his speech._ _

__“The reason we were so close was because I let you bring out the child in me. I grew up, but I know you...never will.” The words pained Troy to say. It was only made worse when he saw a flicker of betrayal cross Abed’s face. “It isn’t fair to either of us. If we stay friends, I’ll be forced to hold myself back and you’ll just be strung along. I can’t let that happen to either of us.” Troy knew he sounded horrible; there was no easy way to tell someone that you no longer had a place for them in your life. Abed was perpetually in a childlike state of mind, and while Troy respected that it wasn’t necessarily within his control, it didn’t change the fact that Troy no longer had room in his life for it._ _

__“You didn’t want to string me along, so you strung me along for _five_ years?” Abed’s voice could only be compared to a snarl. It was the most emotion Troy could ever remember him showing. _ _

__“It was easier for me to pretend everything was fine. I preferred running away from the truth because the thought of formally saying goodbye to you broke me.” Troy tried to defend himself, tears still clouding his vision. “But I don’t have a choice anymore!” A familiar feeling came over Troy and he suddenly felt like yelling everything. This was exactly why he had spent so much time avoiding Abed. He hated that this was a part of who he was and he was trying to escape it. It was pathetic; a grown man shouldn’t cry so easily. Troy was tired of being put down for being too juvenile. He wanted to grow up and fit in. Truthfully, it was hardly Abed’s fault that Troy acted in such a way, but Troy found it easier to push that side of himself down when he wasn’t around the old friend._ _

__“We both know that I know I’m crazy.” Abed replied, reverting back to his monotone speech. “I always thought you understood me. You know that those ‘childish’ movies and television shows are what I use to make sense of things because I don’t understand people and life is too confusing and unpredictable.” Abed was no stranger to being mocked for the way he invested himself in fictional worlds. Even his own father had put him down time and time again for the way he treated Star Wars like it was real, and for the way he compared every event in his life to something straight out of a sitcom like _Friends_. _ _

__“Abed, I still love that part of you.” Troy promised. “I always will.”_ _

__“Don’t lie to me. Please.” Abed begged. “If you loved that part of me, it wouldn’t be the thing causing you to end our friendship.” He shrugged. “I’m used to it. Normally this would hardly affect me at all. I guess this time it hurts more because I thought you were different.” Abed admitted, eyes darting away from Troy. He didn’t want to look at him anymore. “I assumed you fell outside of the established formula, and I was wrong. I never should have questioned things. Tv shows never really leave their usual formulas, and when they do, it never lasts.”_ _

__Troy just sighed, dropping his shoulders and hanging his head in shame. He didn’t say anything in response to that. Bursting Abed’s bubble and reminding him that life wasn’t some sitcom was only going to worsen the situation. He thought it better to just let Abed cope the way he wanted to. At least this way, Abed seemed somewhat happy; that made Troy’s burden feel a lot lighter._ _

__“Can I ask you a question, Troy?” Abed requested, pointing a finger at him, which he retracted into a fist as he lifted his head to look at Troy once again. “Why wasn’t me confessing my feelings for you enough to make you come back?”_ _

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Chapter three anyone?


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Huge apology for the long wait on this one, I got busy and it was hard to find the time to sit down and focus on this story once again. But I'm back!

Troy fell silent, looking down as he tried to think of a reasonable answer to Abed’s question. Abed simply stared at him with unblinking eyes, his face expressionless outside of his furrowed brows. He looked ready to wait all night for an answer from Troy if he needed to. 

“I didn’t think you were being serious.” Troy finally admitted. “I thought you were just saying what you needed to say to get me to come back.” 

Abed pursed his lips, shaking his head. It was a ridiculous answer, and they both knew it. He didn’t give Troy any sort of answer, instead choosing to fish his phone out of his pocket. He held up a hand to silence the questions he knew Troy would throw his way as he scrolled through his call log in search of the date from three years ago that he had memorized. 

“The twenty-third of July, twenty seventeen.” Abed recited the day, setting his phone down on the table and sliding it to Troy. “The day I told you I was in love with you.” He gestured to the phone, face remaining completely blank. “Press play.” 

“I’ve listened to this voicemail before, Abed. I don’t need to hear it again.” Troy shook his head, unable to stop himself from smiling at the sheer absurdity of this entire situation. How and why did Abed have that date memorized, and why was he so intent on bringing it back up? It had happened so long ago; Troy assumed Abed would have been over this by now. Three years was a long time to hold onto feelings for someone who clearly had no plans on coming back. Regardless, it did admittedly make Troy feel even more guilty for everything that he had put Abed through. 

“Listen to it again and try to tell me that it wasn’t genuine, Troy.” Abed demanded. He was never one for high emotionality, but that voicemail had been one of the rare occasions where Abed bared his soul and let his voice become something beyond his usual robotic drawl. It crushed him that Troy would so quickly dismiss it as a ploy to manipulate him into returning a text or call. 

“Why are you still holding on to me after so long?” Troy asked, picking up the phone and staring at the screen. His finger hovered over the button that would play the voicemail but something told him not to press it. He knew nothing good would come from it. Tonight was already enough of a mess and he was determined to do anything possible to avoid the influx of emotions that would come along with listening to Abed’s confession. 

“Because I loved you. Why is that so hard for you to understand?” Loved. Past tense. So the feelings were gone. 

“You’ve stopped loving me since.” Troy observed in a sad voice.

“You stopped loving me six years ago. I was bound to stop loving you eventually, too.” Abed fidgeted nervously. It pained him to say he didn’t love Troy anymore. Part of him still did, and always would, but he was working to bury that piece of himself. It was only hurting Abed to continue holding onto someone who had so clearly stopped needing him.   
“Me leaving Greendale didn’t mean I stopped loving you.” Troy argued. He and Abed had still been close that day that he’d left. He hadn’t just thrown away his relationship with his best friend the moment he stepped onto that boat. 

“One year on a boat was enough to make four years of friendship mean nothing to you.” Abed’s eyes darted around for a moment before settling on his bowl of buttered noodles. He couldn’t look Troy in the eyes anymore. “It makes me wonder if there was ever really any love there at all.” 

“You know I cared about you, and-” 

“And you lied to me about a lot of things.” Abed cut in. “When you and Britta started dating, you tried hiding it from me. The handshake that you told me you invented for us was from some stupid blog. Should I keep going?” He raised a brow, lifting his eyes back to Troy. “What about the fact that we only ever became friends because you wanted to use me to pass Spanish class?” 

“But once I realized how much I genuinely liked hanging out with you I stopped caring about my grade.” 

“You aren’t denying the fact that at first you were using me.” Abed felt his heart sink. He didn’t want to rethink four years of friendship but here he was, finding every plot hole. 

“You know I’m not proud of the person I was when we first met. That wasn’t even the real me.” Troy pointed out, voice turning gentle. He could tell Abed was working himself up and he needed to calm the other man down before an unintended emotional outburst occurred. 

“I’m starting to wonder if there is a real you.” Abed cocked his head to the side. “You’re like the Joker. There’s so many different versions of you that nobody is really sure which one is the real one.”

“And you’ve always thought of yourself as Batman. So I’m your nemesis now?” Troy wanted to cry. He wanted to start sobbing, and begging Abed to forgive him and call him his best friend again. He bit his lip and squeezed his eyes shut for a moment, bottling up the imminent emotional eruption. As soon as he got home Troy would let everything out, but, for now, he needed to maintain face. He couldn’t let Abed see that he was winning this game of mental chess. 

Abed opened his mouth as if to say something, then quickly shut it without a word. He turned away from Troy, drumming his fingers on the table. 

“You should go.” He finally said in a quiet voice. It was obvious that he was trying just as hard as Troy to suppress his emotions. That was usually an easy task for Abed; he didn’t have a lot of emotions, and the ones he did have were easy for him to control. It was still jarring to glimpse the rare moments where he cracked and allowed emotion to spill out. 

“We still have so much to talk about.” Troy replied. 

“I think it’s better for the both of us to have some space right now.” Abed said in an urgent voice. “Please, Troy.” He offered a pleading look, his brown eyes full of thinly veiled pain. He didn’t want this either, but it was becoming obvious that they weren’t meant to be in each other’s lives anymore. It was foolish of them to believe that they could repair six years of separation with two conversations. If anything, they had made everything worse. 

Troy didn’t say another word as he stood up and walked over to where Abed was sitting. He pulled the other man into a hug, refusing to let go as he quietly whispered, “I’m sorry”. When he finally pulled away from the hug, he stared at Abed, scanning his face for any emotion or reaction. Abed just looked back at him with a stone face. 

“Goodbye.” Troy said in a shaky voice. “If you ever decide to text or call again, I’ll answer. Promise.” He lifted his hands in a silent request to perform their old handshake. Abed just looked up at Troy and blinked twice. Troy dropped his hands back to his side in defeat, turning on his heel and walking to the door. He shot one more look over his shoulder, locking eyes with Abed who still remained seated at the table, watching Troy with an emotionless gaze. 

Abed had cried only twice before in his life. He wasn’t the type of person for tears; even when his father blamed him for his mother leaving, he had never gotten emotional about it. What was the point of crying over something? Tears didn’t fix things. 

For the third time in his life, Abed allowed himself to cry. Once the tears started, they wouldn’t stop. He lost track of time, only stopping when his voice was hoarse and his eyes were red and puffy from the tears. Maybe he had made a mistake. Maybe he should have just forgiven Troy and done his best to recreate what they had once had. It had just felt so good to be the one doing the rejecting for once. 

When he finally found the strength to stand up, Abed walked over to the abandoned box on the counter. It was the gift Troy had brought. He debated tossing it in the garbage and forgetting about it, but the realization came to him that this would be the last memento he ever had of his best friend, and Abed found himself opening the box. 

Inside was the first Kickpuncher comic they had written together. When Troy had moved out, Abed had insisted he take it with him as a way to remember his time at Greendale. After all those years, Troy still had it, and it was in perfect condition. He had gone out of his way to take care of the silly comic.

Abed: _I forgive you._

__He hit send, his lip twitching up into a smile when his phone started ringing less than a minute later._ _


End file.
